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Juvenile Detention Reform History

Located in south-central Kansas, Sedgwick County is the second
most populous of all 105 Kansas counties. The United States Census (2009)
estimates more than 490,000 residents of diverse ethnic and cultural backgrounds
reside within the county. The City of Wichita is the largest city in Sedgwick
County, as well as the entire State of Kansas, with over 350,000 residents. By
Kansas statutes youth at-risk for juvenile detention are ages 10 to 17. The
at-risk population numbered 55,579 in 2009 and has not changed significantly in
this decade. The racial and ethnic composition of the population has steadily
become more diverse and in 2009 was 67% White and 33% Minority (15% Hispanic,
12.5% African American, 4.5% Asian, 1% American Indian).

Sedgwick County built their first juvenile detention facility
and adjoining juvenile court building in the mid-1970’s. The juvenile campus was
located in a residential neighborhood in an entirely different area from the
adult jail and courthouse. The facility was named the Evaluation and Referral
Center and the design was tailored to better address the needs of developing
youth. It was state of the art with a focus on rehabilitation. This was done at
the same time the Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention Act was being
implemented to remove youth from adult jails. Prior to this change, youth were
detained on the 8th floor of the adult jail in cells designed for adults with
little space for education, classes, programming or recreational activities.

By 1990 demand for locked detention exceeded the 33-bed
facility capacity and the pressures of overcrowding began. Studies were done to
project future demand and to profile the detention population and detainment
practices. Local planners embraced an emerging reform strategy to establish
detention alternatives before expanding the locked facility. The first
alternative was Home Based Supervision that opened in 1990 followed in 1994 with
a staff-secure coed shelter named the Juvenile Residential Facility.

The Home Based Supervision program began with one supervising
officer who screened detained youth and coordinated referrals with the juvenile
court judges. All youth selected for this program required authorization for
release from detention by the Juvenile Court and were supervised in their own
homes under a strict contract signed by the parent, youth and supervisor. In
1994, an option was added to increase the numbers of youth approved for
admission by adding electronic monitoring/house arrest. The program has been
very successful and has grown to employ four supervision officers, with one
required to be bilingual in Spanish and English. The program serves
approximately 200 youth annually that would otherwise be detained with an
average daily population of 29, a success rate of 80% and average cost of
$18/day (2011).

The Juvenile Residential Facility was constructed on the
juvenile campus and opened in 1994. Eligible youth come from the juvenile
detention facility with authorization by the Juvenile Court. The facility opened
with a capacity of 21and later increased to 24. The facility was designed for
youth that are detained pending hearings that are not public safety risks but
they cannot go home. Many of the eligible youth are young and home is not an
option because of the situation of their parent or the nature of their alleged
offense. Half the youth attend school in the community riding the bus each
morning and the rest attend school at the facility. The facility serves over 300
youth annually, with an average daily population of 20, a success rate of 88%
and average cost of $183/day (2011).

By 1994 these programs provided the Juvenile Court with a
continuum of less costly options for use during the detention process.
Unfortunately, demand for detention services rose significantly from 1993-95 due
to an increase in gang violence in the community. The average daily population
jumped from 46 in 1993 to 71 and 108 the next two years. The Juvenile Detention
Facility became severely overcrowded with dangerous youth from rival gangs. The
33-bed detention facility reached populations as high as 76. Several serious
incidents and disturbances resulted in staff and youth injuries and brought
negative media attention to the County. At that time there were no available
detention beds in Kansas. In September 1995 a private detention facility opened
in Topeka, Kansas. The County immediately began contracting for offsite housing
to address the overflow which helped staff bring order to the facility.

In 1996 the County was cited for overcrowding at the detention
facility by the licensing authority, the Kansas Department of Health and
Environment. This resulted in a voluntary consent agreement between the State
and County placing limits on the number of youth detained and prescribing a
comprehensive planning and decision process to address the short and long-term
detention needs in Sedgwick County. As part of this process, a policy team
composed of local stakeholders and a professor in criminal justice from Wichita
State University was established to oversee the detention continuum and
resources. This team was named the Detention Utilization Committee (DUC). An
Operations Committee was also established to review youth in the detention
continuum to facilitate movement and ensure no youth “fell between the cracks”
spending more time than necessary in detention. The policy team has met monthly
and the operations team weekly since 1996. This model has worked extremely well
in managing the population and making improvements to the system.

One early and important system improvement was the design and
implementation of an objective risk screening instrument in 1997. The screening
tool was called the Juvenile Detention Risk Assessment Instrument (JDRA). It was
developed in consultation with Wichita State University by the Detention
Utilization Committee. Validation studies were done in 1997 and 2010 to ensure
the right youth were being held for a detention hearing versus being released to
their parent. The County has realized substantial savings from the combined
impacts of the alternatives and the risk screening instrument that have
consistently diverted 40% of detention days.

The next improvement was implementation in 2000 of a Detention
Advocacy Service (DAS) program focused on reducing the daily population and the
overrepresentation of minority youth held in detention. The program strategy was
designed by a community planning team to provide specialized legal defense,
advocacy and case management services to minority and low-income youth in
detention and pending a detention hearing. A contract was developed with Kansas
Legal Services to provide legal representation and case management supervision
as a defense team to advocate for detained youth to be released on bonds or
moved to one of the alternatives. The case management supervision alternative is
far less intensive than the Home Based Supervision program. The Detention
Advocacy Service program serves 400 youth annually, 70% minority, with an
average caseload of 30 supervised in the community, and a success rate of 80%.
Youth receive continuity in legal representation at each stage as their case
moves through the court process. This strategy combined with those previously
discussed, increased the percentage of detention days diverted from 40% to 45%
and helped to level the playing field for youth from low income families in the
court process.

After implementing these alternatives and systems improvements
Sedgwick County made the decision to replace the 35-year-old detention facility
with a new 108-bed facility that opened in 2006. This brought an end to the
practice of managing population overflow by sending Sedgwick County youth long
distances from their parents and service providers for locked detention. At this
point the terms of the voluntary consent agreement were satisfied and the
regulatory case was closed. The new facility is staffed for 81 and has an
average daily population of 67 (2010). Each of the detention alternatives
continues to be fully utilized and the popular belief that demand will increase
by adding capacity has not occurred. The staff and policy team has continued to
employ the same population management practices and philosophy of limiting use
of locked detention for serious and violent youth.

In 2007 Sedgwick County was selected to participate in the
Models for Change DMC Action Network Initiative funded by the MacArthur
Foundation. Funding was provided for four years to expand work on system
improvements to reduce minority overrepresentation across the juvenile justice
system. Data collection was expanded and the African American community was
organized and engaged with system stakeholders to understand and advocate for
solutions. An African American Coalition was established to bring community
voice to the local policy team. In the area of detention, data analysis revealed
an increase in youth being admitted as a sanction for probation violations for
school misbehavior and truancy. The issue was studied by the Detention
Utilization Committee and in January 2010 a Weekend Alternative Detention
Program was established. The non-residential program was modeled after an
existing program in Tacoma, Washington. Youth are assigned by the Court to spend
6 hours Saturday and Sunday attending cognitive programming classes at the
Juvenile Residential Facility, in lieu of a 7 day sanction in the detention
facility. During the first year in operation 217 youth were served and 94%
completed successfully. In 2011, 267 youth were served and detention sanctions
were reduced by 33% from the 2009 baseline. The two day curriculum is focused on
teaching problem solving and decision-making skills to prevent future
violations. The annual cost per client was $142. With this change the average
daily population in the juvenile detention facility was reduced from 67 to 60 in
2011.

Over the last two decades Sedgwick County has been progressive
and made great strides in juvenile detention reform. However, this is an area
where there is always more that needs to be done. Too many status offenders,
mentally ill and youth from child welfare are held in detention through various
legal means and lack of adequate community services. And, youth of color
continue to be overrepresented. Fortunately, a new statewide initiative will
begin in 2011. The Kansas Juvenile Justice Authority in partnership with the
Annie Casey Foundation has agreed to bring the well-established Juvenile
Detention Alternatives Initiative (JDAI) to Kansas. We look forward to working
with state and national partners to continue to improve our system and services
by participating in this initiative.

Mission: To assure quality public services that provide for the present and future well-being of the citizens of Sedgwick County.